When articles such as cylindrical containers (hereinafter simply called containers or articles) are conveyed between turrets, rotors, star wheels, or the like (hereinafter collectively called turrets or rotation conveyance bodies) having pockets at even intervals at outer peripheral parts thereof, the turrets are generally placed so as to make the pitch circles of the pockets contact each other, and rotate at the same peripheral speeds so as to transfer objects from the turret on an upstream side to the turret on a downstream side. In this case, a change in acceleration applied to the conveyed containers becomes infinite, causing scratches, dents, or the like in the containers while also causing abrasion in guides or the like. This problem has in recent years become particularly pronounced as fillers or seamers using can bodies achieve higher speeds and can members are made thinner.
Meanwhile, as a device for transferring and conveying articles between rotation conveyance bodies having pitch circles that do not contact each other, a distribution device is available (see Patent Literature 1) in which, in order to perform alternate distribution from one rotor (turret) to two turrets, the device has at first transfer positions provided in every second pocket pressing plates that are forcibly controlled so as to move bottles outward in a radial direction, and in which the conveyance speed of the bottles is suddenly decelerated down to the speed of the other rotor, or as another example, a container feed device is available (see Patent literature 2) in which a filler body and a star wheel for supplying containers to the filler body are placed such that pitch circles thereof are spaced away from each other by a prescribed offset amount, and in which a guide is placed so as to make the conveyance track of the containers from the star wheel to the filler body follow a connection curve formed by a spiral curve having a curvature that continuously varies from a curvature corresponding to that of the pitch circle of the star wheel to a curvature corresponding to that of the pitch circle of the filler body.